This invention relates to electrical connections for planar cable, such as ribbon cable.
The term "ribbon cable" as used herein, is intended to denote a flat cable comprising a plurality of parallel solid or stranded conductors laminated between layers of an insulating material, such as polyvinyl chloride, teflon, or the like. It is often necessary to connect such cable to a printed circuit board or the like. Several ways of making such a connection have been used. The individual ribbon cable connectors may be soldered to individual conductors on a printed circuit board, a tedious task, and requiring separate mechanical support of the ribbon cable to avoid damaging the printed circuit board or the connections, should the cable be moved. Ribbon cable conductors have been soldered or wire wrapped to pins protruding from a dual-inline plug, which mates with a dual-inline-socket of the type used for integrated circuits, which in turn is attached to printed circuit board conductors. It is also known to solder or wire wrap ribbon cable conductors to the terminals of a connector, which fits over the edge of a printed circuit board or mates with another connector mounted on a printed circuit board. The present invention overcomes numerous difficulties and deficiencies of the above-mentioned connection techniques.